Iron County register., 1887-12-08
PUBLIC LANDS.
The Salient Features of Secretary
Lamar's Annual Report.
wholesale Grants of Public Lands to Rail.
road Corporations and the Evil Eff
fects Springing Therefrom-
Remedial Measures.

Forthcoming annual report is the part
which relates to the adjustment of rail-
road land grants. He has received this
part of his report from the Public Printer,
and it reads as follows:
Shortly after my appointment to the position
now have the honor to hold, and as became
somewhat familiar with the public land system,
its organization and the workings thereof, be-
came more and more impressed with the fact
that the public domain was being diverted from
it's legitimate purposes and converted to OBJ
3ects the inevitable effects of which were re-
pugnant to the entire theory on which the land
system was based.
Apart from the methods of Illegal appropri-
alton of the public domain became convinced
that the administration OF congressional grants
of lands to wagon and railroads has given Sc
to enormous abuses. Congress had not only
made grants which in some instances exceeded
In extent the area of a half dozen of the largest
and most populous States of the Union, but in
addition provided that any losses OF land within
the granted limits should be satisfied by sections
OF land within other and adjoining limits, thus
nearly doubling the area of the original grants.
Under these acts, the Land Department had
withdrawn from public appropriation not only
the granted limits. as required by law. but al /
SO the lands within the indemnity limits at the
request of the grantee companies. Thus enorm-
Gus quantities of the public land were held in
reservation to await the convenience of lie re-
speetiye corporations in the construction of
their roads, the selection of its lands. and the
uncertain adjustments of the grants by the de-
partment.
''This land-graut legislation was certainly
not in harmony with the theory of distribu-
tiCn of the public domain among the people
and gave up to capitalists as basis for traffic
ana speculation and gigantic financial schemes
what was. by the original policy of the Govern
ment, designed to be homes for an industrious
and thrifty people, the abodes of domestic hap
piness and virtue and patriotism. Notwith-
standing these indemnity Withdrawals were
made exclusively for the interests of the COM
pany, few of these, if any of them, constructed
their roads within the time prescribed
in the granting act, as an express
condition which the grant was
made. Maps OF probable general 'desig-
mated and 'definite' routes of said road were
fled with rapidity in the department and with
drawals hereunder asked and almost invaria-
bly, granted, until the public lands in States
and Territories were grid-ironed over with rail
road-granted and indemnity limits; and in
many instances the limits of one road overlap
ping and conflicting with other roads in the
most bewilderng manner, that the settler
seeking home could scarcely find desirable
location that was not claimed by some one or
perhaps two or three of the many roads TO
which grants Of land had been made by Con-
gress. -45
Nor was this all. Though the desired tract
might not be apparently covered by d railroad
location, the settler would hardly select it
before agents of the corporations would set uo
II,
nude it under the right of way and construction
privileges conferred by the granting act Thus
the settler, ignorant of his legal rights and
with no one to advise him with respect to either
the law or the facts, would, for the sake OF
peace and home, readily consent to purchase
from the company. In this way these corpora
tions, in addition to the lands granted them,
have claimed, sold and received the price of a
great deal of other land to which they had
neither legal nor moral right, nor the shadow
of either.
"When, however, through partial surveys or
adjustments Of grants, lands thus sold by a
company were found to be outside of the grants
and determined by the department to be public
lands, the purchaser from the company found
imselffn the unfortunate predicament of hav-
rg lost both his land and his money. Gener-
lily without the means to enter into costly
tigation with a owerful corporation, the de-
rivation of his home, the expenditure and
waste of his years, his energy and strength, in
Fedeeming that home from it's wild condition
rendered his mere technical ght of action
against the company but little more than
mockery.
years have elapsed since many of the
grants have been made, and other years since
the Withdrawals. Some of the companies have
constructed the entire line of their roads,
others fragmentary portions only, and others
again none at all, but the Withdrawals of the
lands were no less effective as a barrier against
the settlers in the one case than in the other.
1t mattered not what might be his equities ac-
quired by years OF toll upon what he believed
to be part of the National domain. It was de-
clared by the highest judicial tribunal,
pounded by the highest law officers of the
executive, that withdrawal once made by
competent authority was legal and effective to
exclude all from intrusion within it's limits.
<'One such case where hardship and injustice
where about to be inflicted under the law came
under your observation. Guilford Miller set
tiled upon lands afterward selected and claimed
by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company to
be within the withdrawal for Indemnity pur
poses Some doubt arising as to the legality of
that withdrawal, the case was referred by this
department to the Acknowledgement for his
opinion the question of law. That officer
held that the withdrawal was legal and
that during it's existence Miller could
acquire right title to the tract
claimed by him and on which he lived.
Whilst recognizing the correctness of the
law you saw the Injustice of the case, so far as
the individual settler was affected; and that
hundreds OF others were similarly situated who
might and would be affected; and you directed
that such grants should be so administered by
this department as, if possible, to protect these
settlers from such injustice, stating your be-
lief that this can be done under the provision
which declares that these selections shall be
made under the direction of the Secretary of
the Interior.
After wears of waiting, Congress had failed
to empower the department to make the neces-
say surveys whereby some of the grants might
be adjusted and no immediate prospect of such
surveys was in sight. But law passed
March B. 1885,. "a U. S, $50 whereby the Secre-
tary of the Interior was directed to Immediately
adjust each of the railroad land grants made by
Congress to aid in the construction of rail-
roads. With an earnest desire to obey the
mandate of Congress to give to the corpora
tions their every right under the laws, and at
1he same time follow the directions given by
you to see that ample protection should be ex-
tended to settlers and those seeking to make
settlement on the public lands Ga matter which
had been so long and SO utterly overshadowed),
entered upon most careful consideration, of
the whole subject of the history and law relat-
ing to land grants, and concluded that if the
department was clothed with authority to make
indemnity Withdrawals, as had been done in so
many instances, the exercise of that authorit V
was matter entirely within sound dis
4cre.;en and not matter of
is.l obligation y any respect; /;
Ia. the same sound scrat.oa which, in the
i.,t,rcs1 % the con rsr:>e justified said with
.l-.~aIs now demande perem ptorily in the
uslo!ic interest speedy revocation Of the same
and that the most effective way Of expediting
an adjustment OF the land grants. and dong
exact Justice to the companies, guarding and
promoting the interests of the settlers also,
was 10 ppfmit the public to enter into competi-
tion with the. companies in the selection of
lands heretofore withdrawn for indemnity pur-
poses.
accordingly on May %, 1887, with your ap-
proyal rules were laid upon the different COM
NAMES for whose benefit Withdrawals had been
made to show cause By day GER ain why said
withdrawals should not be revoked Some OF
the companies failed to show causes others filed
answers n senting 10 the revocations, as they
had received satisfaction of the grant either in
full or as far as possible: others assented on
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